If you have any information regarding this, please feel free to leave your comment/opinion on this statement.

This is a press release statement by Todd Cefaratti, from the Tea Party.net, in defense of the negative publicity.

The Truth about TheTeaParty.net

Recently, a lot has been said by others about who we are and what we do, how we do it, and why. Some folks say it out of concern because they don’t know better. Some do so because they are jealously protecting their own “leadership.” And others trash talk us— and other groups—because that’s just the way they are. We want you to know the truth straight from us.

We believe, like many of you, that our government has grown out of control in a death spiral of unsustainable and barely imaginable trillion-dollar deficits and a National Debt rivaling Gross Domestic Product. This government has ignored the Constitution that defines us; invaded the liberty from which our nation was born; and daily drains away the individuality and entrepreneurial spirit of Americans in order to advance a radical, socialist policy built on the back of American taxpayers. We—like many of you—decided to stand up and do something about it.

There is no single national “TEA PARTY” organization, and we don’t pretend to be “IT.” This is a truly grassroots Movement embracing many issues and many names—TEA, Patriot, Liberty, Conservative. There are several thousand, completely independent groups across the Nation fighting in their own way to restore our America before it’s too late.

Like many of you, we decided to stand up so our children inherit as great a nation as we did —not a socialist paradise crippled by debt. Like many of you, we looked at what we could do, and do well, to make a difference. With so many already in the fight across the nation, we decided to find ways to connect individuals and organizations, to share the message, and above all to bring more Americans into this Movement. That’s what TheTeaParty.net is about—bringing our shared message to as many Americans as possible, giving them the tools to get involved, and connecting them to others locally to make a difference.

We’ve gotten some criticism, so we’re going to address it head on:

1. We are not a PAC. We started as a 501(c)(4) organization designed to share a message and bring more people into this Movement. We never intended to raise money to give to candidates; we raise money to be able to continue spreading the message and waking Americans up to the dangerous state of our government. Unfortunately, we took some bad advice early on and also registered as a PAC, which we’ve since corrected once we learned better. Like a lot of Americans who became actively engaged in politics for the first time, we didn’t know just how many roadblocks our own government puts into place to keep people out.

2. We’ve changed our name. Legally, we are (still) “Stop this Insanity, Inc.” Since our founders have a marketing background, they quickly figured out we needed a better name to effectively spread the message of this Movement and provide resources for folks looking to get involved. We started that as “jointheteaparty.us” and as we’ve grown and evolved, we’ve become TheTeaParty.net. Our mission is the same—to bring as many Americans as possible into the Movement and in contact with local groups.

3. We spend a lot of money on marketing. Of course we do! We’re trying to bring people into the Movement and that starts by reaching out to them. It’s not always long emails and political rhetoric; it’s about bringing people who aren’t yet involved into the Movement in an accessible way—our website— to connect them with other groups locally. We’re leveraging the power of the internet to reach out to new people and get them involved. If we don’t reach out, we can share the blame if our Movement begins to shrink and our opposition continues to grow.

4. Our NASCAR sponsorship. Our goal is reaching out to Americans and getting them excited and motivated about the Movement. Too many Americans simply aren’t engaged, and that lack of engagement is the entrance to creeping socialism. By sponsoring a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team, we’re able to reach out to a ton of folks across America in the most-attended, sports-entertainment activity across America, and hopefully motivate more people to get involved. We are not spending one cent on this sponsorship—it’s self-funded through contributions raised in support of the team and the Movement. Bottom line: we’re bringing more people into the Movement, not spending a cent to do it, and we’re actually raising money as a result!

5. Do we share our members’ personal information? ABSOLUTELY NOT. We care about your privacy, and we don’t share personal information on our email list subscribers. We also have to raise money to continue our work, so we do allow sponsored emails to be broadcast over our email list (by us)—without compromising your data.

6. Our relationship with Tea Party Patriots. We don’t have one. We respect the work that they do to advance the Movement, and we know that some of what we do is pretty similar, but we’re completely separate organizations.

It seems some people don’t like groups that don’t work exactly how they want them too. And they’ve even rebroadcast cheap, liberal media hatchet jobs to try and attack us. We’re all in the same fight together, and while we know there are some real scams out there, it’s pretty childlike and irresponsible to our Movement’s goals to attack other Tea Party folks without the real truth. That doesn’t help the Movement. Every time we fight amongst ourselves over petty ego trips and silly turf wars, we make it that much harder to fight the creeping socialism that is tearing at our country.

We hope you’ll stay a part of our efforts and those of other like-minded groups who are working together to help save America.

14 COMMENTS

Part One comment: I had read the same negative stories about theteaparty.net and was frankly a little leary of them. A big knock against them was that they didnt get involved too much with advancing the movement and were pretty much just a website selling merchandise. Although that wouldnt be all bad (this is America after all-where you can sell your products) – I wasnt too interested in following them.

However, in the last couple months Ive changed my opinion about them. They sponsor a widely listened to talk radio program (Rusty Humphries) – that is totally tea party friendly. Also, theyve gotten very active with putting together Cyber Town Halls for Presidential candidates (such as Bachmann they asked me to introduce her – Ive got a teaparty group in Iowa) and they sponsored the first-ever Twitter presidential debate.

Part Two comment: In any case, I feel alot better about them now. I am still active with Tea Party Patriots, Freedom Works, Tea Party Tribune, etc. but the email subscription I have to theteaparty.net is a nice compliment to all these. And I can confirm they are really trying to get the word out and influence policy makers with emailed petition/pledges, etc. So, if there were some knocks against them in the past, they must have gotten the message and are changing their ways! 🙂

I have been looking at 'Tea Party' organizations for about 18 months. I'm not so much a joiner but do a cursory review of what they are about, who runs them, their affiliations and their stands on some key issues. With that, the reference in your piece about the 'Rock the Vote' jogged my memory. I looked into RTV early on and 'passed' as it was more for the youth generation (X, Y, Zero, NEXT or whatever) than for a guy 60+ years old._I just went back there because of this article and found they had started something called 'Democracy Class' that was to be spread around the country to try and get some 'civics' back in school.
Lo and Behold, Democracy Class is taken to schools on a Democracy day which has some pretty heavyweight supporters

I've been a member of The Tea Party,net for a while and they have a Sign The Petition service that allows you you send signed petitions directly to The President and your members of congress,just by entering your zip code.It also allows for your personal comments to be added at the bottom of each petition.It's a great way to sign and send petitions, and to comment personally to our represenatives.They even send you a conformation email that your petition and comments were sent!But, the last couple of petitions that I signed,I didn't recieve any conformation that my signed petition was ever sent?I've even tried re-entering my comments,but they were never confirmed either?It seems that maybe Todd Cefaratti Monitors All Comments Before they are forewarded, and if he doesn't approve of your comments content, maybe they just don't send them?
I know first hand that Mr. Cefaratti Doesn't Like Suggestions or critcism.

i dont get on the internet much and i just fond the site tea party.net. listened to a couple shopw's. the first was with the neocon newt gringwich. if the tea party.net allows this type of sponsure ship you wont last long. find out who newt realy is. there is a reasion he had to resign as speeker. he is a CFR member. he is for big government. he is no different than the theive's that are in there now. he talks a good story, but that's all it is.
as for as signing petitions on the inter net, that is what is wrong with this country. every one want's some one elce to do the work. send a letter to your rep.s' on your stamp, call them on your phone, get involved with your local liberty and freedom group's. start puting the wright people in at local and state leval. the fed is not the answer, it is the problem.

I am the author of the article on Unified Patriots. Since then, more disturbing info has come up re: TeaParty.net. I still recommend, as I did in the spring, to be extremely wary of donating to them. Just because they are hooked up with another organization doesn't mean they are "kosher." I also know of no Tea Parties who try and sell you gold bullion like they have been doing lately.

When the tea party started I went to the rallies, financially supported them, and was generally active. When they came out in support of newt Gingrich over Ron Paul I was shocked, why would they not support a proven constitutionalist over a republican insider I had to figure that they were out of touch with the people that they represent, or that they had been over run by the republicans who they were supposed to transform, in either case I am now on my own, I will root for the tea party because republicans are in fact the lessor of two evils, however I will no longer be financially supporting any one accept Ron Paul he will have my vote or a write in should he fail in his attempt to get the nomination. good luck to the republican tea party as I will be elsewhere.

I received an email today from TheTeaParty.net asking me to sign a petition doing away with Roe vs. Wade. Any Tea Party position paper that I have seen specifically excludes taking a stand on social issues. This made me suspicious and prompted me to look into this. It made me wonder if they were real or a wolf in sheeps clothing.

I have supported the TeaParty.net in a small way in the past, but am finding things I don't like about the organization that indicate to me they are aligned with mainstream Republican organizations frustrated by the declining financial support they have rightly been experincing. They ran a 2016 Presidential poll prominently listing Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, but conveniently omitting Sarah Palin. Recent paeans to the Bush family on Facebook indicate their alignment with the mainstream, i.e. establishment Republicans AGAINST Reagan Republicans. Since I have been and continue to be a Reaganite Palin supporter, I can no longer give support to the TeaParty.net, who I view as "Republican" pretenders, not true Tea Party.

You folks who come on here and complain about the "Tea Party"…..Frankly, I dont believe you are conservatives. I believe you are liberals masquerading as conservatives. Why? Because you are pretending there is one organized "Party". There's no such thing. How many "tea partys" do you know about? There are about 50 I would think….and MILLIONS more who do not join but agree with…like me. Let me clue you folks in. I Dont Care About Any Party but ONE…and that is the one Obama the Traitor belongs to. If you talk about any other, dont bother. The REALITY is simply this. There are TWO SIDES…The American People's….and Obama's. You are either on ONE side or the other. PERIOD. You either want communism or you do not. You either believe in the Constitution or you do not. You either voted "DEMOCRATIC" or you did not. THERE IS NOTHING IN BETWEEN. Now then you "commies" shut up. And to everyone else, stop worrying about anyone but OBAMA. HE is the enemy. HE and his gang of thugs. Worry about THEM. Get rid of THEM…. once they are gone, THEN and only THEN should you start worrying about silly BS . Save the Country FIRST..Get your dang PRIORITIES straight FIRST. Wake up.

Even though I have repeatedly unsubscribed I continue to be on the email list weeks later, soliciting funds ENOUGH! I have sent emails to you, Todd, asking questions, which seems to only confirm my address so I receive a barrage of solicitations! I believe in the Tea Party movement, but I have had enough of your solicitations!